Teach English in Red Bay - TEFL Courses

efl teachers are often asked to teach one to one classes some time in their teaching career. One to one classes are very different from group lessons in many aspects, and in most cases teachers need to come up with their own approaches and teaching strategies because one to one classes always have to be customized to one individual student's particular needs. Teaching one to one is very challenging for new teachers. As a starter, classroom setting can be very different if the class is privately arranged rather than through a school or institution. For example, here in South Korea, many private one to one classes are done at a coffee shop. This means you will not have access to traditional classroom supplies such as a board and markers, unless you personally carry all of them with you. Classroom management will also be quite different as it will be about interacting with just one student instead of a group of students. In a one to one class, your student will be either your student-friend, or your ‘enemy.' Young beginner-level learners could be particularly challenging because often they lack motivation to learn to begin with. Common problems teachers encounter in one to one classes include, but are not limited to: • Students are unmotivated; • Students are more pressured or anxious; • Students get very tired or bored of the lessons; • Students are sometimes rude or arrogant; • Students have unrealistic, or unattainable expectations; • The student simply does not like the teacher, or vice versa; • The teacher fails to address unique needs of the student. The good news is that there are many advantages of one to one classes as well as many different ways of troubleshooting potential problems. The biggest advantage of one to one classes is that the student will get undivided attention from the teacher. For highly motivated students, this is the best class arrangement particularly for speaking skills improvement. There will be far less ‘idle time' when students have to wait for their turn to speak, or run out of things to do in one to one classes. One to one classes also give opportunities for both teachers and students to truly get know to each other, and build a more meaningful teacher-student relationship. One to one classes almost always require teachers to make more detailed lesson plans and class preparation. Here are some ideas for more successful one to one classes: • Discuss the student's needs at the beginning, and ask for the student's feedback or thoughts periodically. • Prepare to be flexible about lesson, course aims, materials, and schedules. • Try a range of methods and techniques – do not just follow a course book syllabus. • Use games and songs. Examples are Hangman, Go Fish, Pictionary, 20 questions, and many other traditional games. More game ideas can be found at http://iteslj.org/c/games.html. (Be sure to adapt these games to the level of the student.) • When playing games, give the student a head start of 10 to 30 seconds. • Consider using a stopwatch or timer to add excitement. This can also be a great tool to control the timing of each activity while keeping the student stimulated. One to one classes are quite challenging in many ways, but provide excellent learning opportunities for both teachers and their students. Think outside the box, be creative and open-minded in each and every class, and be flexible.